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This public history project seeks to draw attention to the history of
feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses in the United States and
Canada from 1971 to present day. This website displays the findings of
Alex Ketchum's doctoral dissertation research. Although most of the data
has been collected from directories, interviews, advertisements, and
archives, user feedback is greatly appreciated.

What is a feminist restaurant?

For the purpose of this study, feminist restaurants, cafes, and
coffeehouses defined themselves as such in either their title, their
promotional materials, or in their publications. Although many
restaurants focus on social justice principles more broadly, the
restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses in this study emphasized that they
were/are feminist. This study looks at both profit and non-profit
businesses.

Apart from that definition, it can be more difficult to categorize these
businesses. Many, but not all, of them were either women-only or had
women-only hours. Many of the spaces were run by collectives. Many of
the owners were influenced by radical lesbian separatist, socialist
feminist, or ecofeminist ideologies. Most held events with feminist and
lesbian poets, musicians, artists, and political speakers. Creating a
community space was important to many of the owners.